Anti-union Wisconsin governor to speak in Springfield

Friday

Mar 23, 2012 at 12:01 AMMar 23, 2012 at 10:01 PM

SPRINGFIELD -- Courting confrontation with Illinois’ public employee unions, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce has booked Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to speak at its annual Springfield lobby day on April 17.

CHRIS WETTERICH

SPRINGFIELD -- Courting confrontation with Illinois’ public employee unions, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce has booked Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to speak at its annual Springfield lobby day on April 17.

The Chamber hopes Walker's visit to ratchet up the pressure on lawmakers to do something about Illinois’ $85 billion in pension debt, said the group’s president, Doug Whitley. The lobby day also coincides with the due date for a report by Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn’s working group on how to deal with Illinois’ pension problems.

Walker, a Republican, is the subject of a recall campaign in Wisconsin, where he signed a law in 2011 eliminating collective bargaining rights for most public employees. Debate over the law brought thousands of union members and citizens to Madison. Democratic legislators in Wisconsin famously fled to Illinois in attempt to keep Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled legislature from acting on the bill.

“We did pick him (Walker) in part because he was controversial,” Whitley said Thursday. “When he was elected governor, he inherited a multibillion-dollar budget problem, and he fixed it. Governor Quinn inherited a multibillion-dollar budget problem, and we’ve still got it.

“The message we’re trying to get across is that Illinois elected officials need to be open-minded about the best practices that have been pursued in other states,” Whitley said.

However, Whitley could not say specifically what the chamber likes about changes in Wisconsin’s pension system made by Walker and the Wisconsin legislature.

“I can’t tell you that, at least not off the top of my head,” he said.

Pension changes

The Wisconsin legislature last year increased what public employees must pay toward their pensions. Before the law passed, workers paid less than 1 percent of their salaries –in some cases nothing – toward pensions. Under the new law, public employees pay 5.8 percent to 6.65 percent, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Pension benefits themselves were not changed.

Most Illinois public employees already pay more than that. Teachers contribute 9.4 percent to their pensions, state university employees pay 8 percent, judges pay 11 percent and legislators pay 11.5 percent. State employees pay 4 percent if they also contribute to the Social Security system and 8 percent if they do not.

In a recent position paper, the Illinois chamber argued that shifting teacher pension costs to school districts and universities, an idea endorsed by Quinn and the state’s other two top Democrats, House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, and Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, is not adequate.

The chamber wants the full retirement age for nearly all employees raised to age 67, as is already the case for so-called “tier 2” employees, who began work after Jan. 1, 2011. The position paper also called for lower cost-of-living increases for retirees and a hybrid combination of traditional pensions and a 401(k)-style defined contribution retirement plan..

Necessary confrontation

“I do think that there’s confrontation that will have to occur because we believe that benefits are going to have to be taken away from public employee unions,” Whitley said. “Those employees and those retirees are not going to be happy about it, but I see no other way to move Illinois off the bottom of the public employee unfunded liability.”

The announcement of Walker’s appearance brought denunciation from leaders of the state’s largest unions, who said Illinois is trying to solve its financial problems the right way, through negotiation rather than confrontation with organized labor.

“This man is the dangerous architect of a class-warfare battle plan that has torn the state of Wisconsin apart, attacked middle-class families and, still today, pits neighbor against neighbor,” said Dan Montgomery, president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers. “Is this what Illinois business leaders want? I can’t answer that question. I can say that we in the labor movement won’t sit idly by.”

Whitley said the chamber does not endorse Walker’s approach to collective bargaining.

“I want to make this very clear. That is not our issue, and that is not why we invited Scott Walker to come to Illinois,” he said.

Chris Wetterich can be reached at (217) 788-1523.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.